Fewer seeing an NHS dentist (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Fewer seeing an NHS dentist

5:45pm Thursday 5th June 2008 in Local By Claire Lomax

New figures show fewer people are seeing an NHS dentist in Bradford and Airedale than before the Government's reforms in April 2006.

Nationally a total of 800,000 fewer people saw a dentist in the two years to December 2007 than in the two years to April 2006, data from the NHS Information Centre for health and social care published yesterday showed.

The Government's new dental contract was implemented on April 1, 2006. It allowed dental practices to stop treating NHS patients.

Figures for Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust show that in the two years to April 2006, 274,308 adults and children saw an NHS dentist - 56.2 per cent of the district's population at that time.

In the two years to December 2007 this had dropped to 271,502 adults and children receiving dental treatment on the NHS - 55.1 per cent of the population.

While this figure was above the national average of 53.7 per cent, it was below the average for the Yorkshire and Humber region where 57.2 per cent of the population saw a dentist in the two years leading up to December 2007.

For the Yorkshire and Humber region this was down from an average of 58.4 per cent in the two years leading to April 2006.

The latest figures also showed wide variations across England in who gets access to an NHS dentist. The variation was wider for adults than for children.

The Government's chief dental officer Barry Cockcroft said: "Since the dental reforms we have made expanding NHS dentistry a national priority and have invested an extra £200 million this year to help strengthen local services and open more practices.

"The Information Centre access figures do not reflect the new services that are opening all the time.

"Rather, the figures are retrospective and include the temporary decrease in access which occurred following the transition to the new system in 2006.

"Due to the time delay between actual access levels and the development of official figures, it will take time before the current access situation is reflected in such figures."

A spokesman for Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT said: "Access to NHS dentistry has been an issue of public concern nationally since 2006, and this is also the case in Bradford and Airedale.

"However, the increasing number of children treated in the district is bucking the national trend.

"We are currently in the process of setting up three new dental surgeries in Bradford, Keighley and Ilkley which will provide preventative dental care to up to 20,000 patients."